SAP and Google Cloud’s New Partnership Will Help You Harness the Full Power of Your Data
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have dominated conversations in the technology industry over the past six months. A significant portion of that conversation has centered around generative AI models, such as ChatGPT, and rightly so—as the technology brings unprecedented capabilities to organizations of all sizes and across verticals. But, platforms like ChatGPT are just the tip of the iceberg—we’re seeing a significant spike in AI innovations across the board as AI demand and adoption rates continue to accelerate at exceptional levels.
One of the milestone AI announcements from the past month came from SAP and Google Cloud. In May, the two companies issued a press release announcing an expansion of their partnership that “builds the future of open data and AI for enterprises.” At a high level, the companies are enabling shared customers to build an end-to-end open data cloud solution that uses SAP Datasphere to combine mission-critical SAP system data, including data from S/4HANA and HANA Cloud, with non-SAP data within Google Cloud’s BigQuery data warehouse. The integration enables organizations to:
- Consolidate data from virtually all data sources across the organization on one data cloud to achieve real-time visibility into their entire data ecosystem.
- Use Google Cloud’s analytics technology, along with Google Vertex AI and Machine Learning (ML), to enrich the value of that data to advance enterprise AI development, accelerate digital transformation, and transform the business.
SAP data already drives essential business operations, initiatives, and decisions. Having the ability to now combine it with non-SAP data and then pair it with Google Cloud’s leading analytics, AI, and ML solutions can have a profound impact, leading to business outcomes that take companies to the next level.
Modernizing Antiquated Data Processes
To truly grasp the game-changing potential of this new offering, we first have to understand the current playing field. Data is the foundation of decision-making, AI, and digital transformation—but, in order to have a strong foundation, that data is most effective when viewed in its entirety. For a long time, organizations have struggled to consolidate, view, and analyze data in siloed systems and databases across their enterprise. The process typically required business users and data scientists to manually go through each system and database, extract the data they think is most important, and then dump it in a central repository for analysis. Not only is this process time-consuming, laborsome, and costly, but it also introduces the risk of manual error and often results in companies having to settle for using only a subset of their data in vital business decisions and transformation initiatives.
The integration between SAP and Google Cloud now takes the manual element out of the data consolidation process, empowering companies to gain unprecedented visibility into and value out of enterprise-wide data through advanced analytics and enterprise AI technologies—all with reduced risk, cost, and effort. In the product press release, Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud, succinctly summed up the benefits of this new offering:
“SAP and Google Cloud now offer an incredibly comprehensive and open data cloud, providing a foundation for the future of enterprise AI. Few resources are as important to digital transformation as data. By deeply integrating SAP data and systems with our data cloud, customers will be able to utilize our analytics capabilities, as well as advanced AI tools and large language models to find new insights from their data.”
Google Cloud for RISE with SAP
While this announcement is great news for all SAP and Google Cloud customers, it’s especially impactful for companies choosing Google Cloud for RISE with SAP—SAP’s program designed to lets users move to the cloud and S/4HANA at their own pace—because the two companies are making it even easier for customers to not only get to the cloud but also reap the modernization benefits it offers. As Google Cloud explains, these companies “will be able to accelerate ROI from their SAP S/4HANA adoption because they’ll have access to a complete data platform fully managed by SAP and supported by Google Cloud’s global leadership in cloud infrastructure, security, intelligence, and innovation.”
In addition to consolidating data on a single platform for real-time visibility into the enterprise-wide data ecosystem, here is a closer look at a few additional ways the SAP and Google Cloud collaboration is helping organizations modernize and optimize their business:
- Perform advanced analytics: SAP Datasphere facilitates data replication and federation, which enables companies to integrate data from SAP sources with non-SAP data in BigQuery. With enterprise-wide data – spanning sales, marketing, finance and more – in one unified platform, companies can then leverage the Google Cloud Cortex Framework to apply a uniform business context across the data. This empowers companies to run federated queries and jumpstart analytics by connecting the data to front-end systems such as Google Looker, Tableau, and Microsoft Power BI. Additionally, organizations can leverage SAP Analytics Cloud in Google Cloud to analyze financial and business outcomes to drive value.
- Leverage Google Cloud’s AI and ML models: Companies can use pre-delivered content from Google Cloud’s AI and ML services to train models on SAP and non-SAP data and adopt new generative AI solutions that yield powerful data insights that help them make faster, more informed business decisions and optimize business operations. As Google Cloud notes, this is a “significant advantage” as Generative AI “has the potential to revolutionize industries by increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and optimizing workflows with fewer human interactions.”
- Maximize investments in SAP and Google Cloud: There’s a big difference between adopting technology and actually leveraging and maximizing the full power that technology to add true value to an organization. This new offering from SAP and Google Cloud enables shared customers to utilize software features and functionalities to their fullest and yield maximum return on their investments. For example, one of the biggest ways it’s helping customers do this is by providing them with the ability to use SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) on Google Cloud globally.
Every business strives to turn their data into meaningful insights that transform the business. Viewing SAP and non-SAP data separately can get you part of the way there. But, to cross the finish line, you need real-time visibility into your complete data ecosystem. This SAP and Google Cloud integration allows you to do just this while benefitting from advanced analytics capabilities and powerful AI and ML technologies—a powerful combination that leads to agility, modernization, innovation, and ultimately, competitive differentiation.
An Opportunity for Partners
SAP and Google Cloud are opening up a whole new world of opportunity from a technology standpoint. But, to make this possibility a reality, many organizations still require guidance on implementation, management and maintenance, and continuous optimization—and that’s where digital transformation partners such as Navisite come in.
Navisite is an SAP Gold Partner and recognized Google Cloud Partner with comprehensive advisory, migration, and managed cloud services to support your SAP business on Google Cloud. With combined expertise on both SAP applications and Google Cloud technologies, our team will help you move forward with the business of transformation and maximize your SAP and cloud investments. Contact us today to find out how we can help you navigate the intricacies of analytics, AI, and the cloud while implementing sound strategies that will solve business problems and take your company to the next level.